New Delhi: India and Russia today decided to extend the tenure of an inter-governmental commission for military cooperation by another 10 years to 2020 and inched closer to resolving Gorshkov aircraft carrier price and T-90 tanks technology transfer issues.

New Delhi and Moscow also decided to form an apex body headed by the defence secretaries of the two countries to coordinate operation of several working groups for military cooperation.

“We have taken an in-principle decision to extend the tenure of the Inter-Governmental Commission (IGC) for Military and Technical Cooperation by another 10 years to 2020 from 2010, when the current Commission’s 10-year term ends," defence minister A K Antony and his Russian counterpart Anatoly Serdyukov said at a joint press conference soon after their annual IGC meeting here.

“The apex body headed by the two defence secretaries will meet every six months to review the joint working groups’ functioning and to sort out all issues concerning defence relations," Antony said.

The two Defence Ministers said Indo-Russian military relations have evolved over the years from “buyer-vendor" to “partners" for joint development of weapons and equipment.